OOC: Continued from
here
OOC2: Self-Moderated, approval needed.
IC:
Zackner stood against the wall and idly scratched his thigh, another wholesome day at the gym. He was agitated, as he had already gone through two students this brightening, neither of which had shown the least bit of proclivity to their intended discipline. Fortunately for the healer he had dealt with the day prior, the wooden weapons the basic students practiced with were not very heavy, otherwise he probably would have felt the bite of this lesson for months. He was a much nicer man than his father was, but rash, also alike his father, taken to fits of brutality when a student displeased him.
The Vysstichi shook his head. He'd gotten a rather thick mat of hair from his father, one of his less desirable traits. However, if there was one thing of worth he had received from Markener, was his skill with the blade. Zackner was a full blood, complete with silver hair, red eyes and black skin. There was no mistaking him for anything but a dark elf. He seemed to have the physical appearance of a human about 20 years old. He was shorter than his father, reaching only about 5'7" in height but far more flexible. Physically weaker, he made up for his lack of strength with agility. Unbeknownst to him, he was not unlike his student. Today, he was teaching dual wielding.
The man glided into the training facility, keeping to the side of the entrance in hopes of not disturbing any current classes that might be going on. He was quite surprised to see that there were no others within sight save a sole dark elf, apparently his age. Olvann knew however, that the Elven races, below and above outlived humans by centuries. The Vysstichi bore the usual resemblance to most of his kind, with long locks of silver hue and an ashen skin that boasted a merciless heritage. Humbly he slid towards the man, taking a short respectful bow and addressing the Vysstichi with the respect warranted between student and master.
“Serale sir.” The man’s terribly shocking eyes met the seething red of the Vysstichi master. As was protocol among the Vysstichi, Olvann had adhered to the rules of a subordinate. Although he was quite far from the teachings of his deceased father, his knowledge of custom and courtesy remained intact. Nodding, Zackner appraised the man momentarily before pointing to a floor mat a short distance away. Olvann’s eyes traced the Vysstichi’s route and understood. Stretching was a vital part of any physical activity and while Olvann was in superb form, he had no intention of disobeying his instructor. The man went into a routine of stretches, insuring his lithe sinuous body was primed for an imminently harsh workout. Rotating his shoulders and neck, Olvann then bounced up and down on the balls of his feet several times before getting the approving nod of his instructor.
“I'm Zackner, as you already know." He was pleased to see that man knew how to obey, or he was simply intelligent enough to read the displeasure in his features. Good, he would not have to start with a harsh lesson. He was superbly fit, short for a human, and built like an elf. He would take well to his teachings, he knew already. That simple fact proved to lighten his mood considerably. His courtesy was noted, he was evidently well versed in courtly behavior for a simple healer. He hardly looked a noble in his humble garb. However, Zackner had learnt many times not to make assumptions.
"Well, choose your weapons." The Vysstichi said offhandedly.
"Since you don't have any weapons on you, you may use the wooden ones here." He stepped away from the box of weapons, while Olvann chose a wider, short well-balanced blade and a lither, longer blade.
“Ahh, yes, Elven sword styles, well chosen.” Remarked Zackner.
“I assume you’ve had no training with blades?” He questioned and received Olvann’s nod in response. Perhaps this wouldn’t be such a horrible experience after-all, the man looked built to fight. His choice of weapons was, in truth, an interesting combination. Most did not think of choosing different weapons, but preferred matching equipment. It was the result of some strange idea of perfect equality, a societal inbreeding of conformation. However, adaptability was what kept you alive in a fight; this man would learn that quickly. Zackner personally preferred two different size swords as well, though he fought well with any shape and size combination. He was well versed in the fighting arts.
As the man slipped back to the training mat, he experimentally swung the swords about. Zackner smiled, it would be interesting training this one. He loved to fight. It was what he lived for. This man would prove to be little challenge, though, that hardly mattered. He pulled out a small, broad sword that was shorter than Olvann’s small one, and a lithe longer one that was similar to Olvann’s long sword.
"Let’s see what you can do." Zackner urged and slipped into a defensive stance.
"Attack me." It was traditional to start with an attack on the teacher. That way, it was quickly established who was better, and Zackner could see where his pupil was going to excel and have trouble. They never beat him, of course. They had no training. Nevertheless, it was still a good learning tool. Application was better than simple instruction.
It took him a moment to realize what Zackner had requested of him, finally understanding that he was being asked to demonstrate what skill he had. Nodding, he stepped forward swinging his long sword overhead while simultaneously slashing his short sword in a horizontal strike towards the master's midsection. Zackner stopped both strikes simultaneously, moving his swords inches to deflect the blows. He did it out of habit, almost boringly, and he was quick enough to dispel any force in his blows. His student’s blades were merely knocked to the side and not brashly thrown out of his hands. He was quick, but not quick enough for a fully trained blades man. Zackner looked at the man squarely, his swords holding his pupils arms open.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" He boasted, cocking an eyebrow at his student.
"Keep attacking!" The dark elf moved back and left his stomach wide open.
Olvannn smiled lightly as Zackner beckoned him to further pursue the attack. Olvann lightly danced back and forth, swinging back his sword arms to momentarily distract Zackner from his real objective. As he pulled backwards, Olvann then charged and attempted to fling his foot in a swinging motion towards Zackner's 'seemingly' open stomach. Olvann was quite impressively fast. Zackner had maneuvered him into a position where swords held no advantage, so he didn't use them. Others had assumed they were supposed to use the sword, as it was a training session specifically for them. He was not caught off guard by the maneuver, but he was impressed with it. He didn't follow the swords, but used his hilts to trap the man’s foot, careful to not hurt him. Then, pausing, he used the man’s foot to flip him over. He landed on his stomach, but somehow Zackner had tossed him in such a way that he wasn't injured. Of course, the mat helped, but either way, he was unhurt...
"Well done." He exclaimed.
"I was hoping you'd catch on. The swords are your main attack, don't forget that. They will cut off a foot any time. However, speed and surprise are critical. In a situation where your fastest attack may not be your swords, don’t hesitate to use the tools you have."
Zackner backed up.
"Alright, time to move on." Olvann returned to his feet and Zackner continued.
"This is a cross slash. It's a basic maneuver, but an important one." He took his right blade, and, starting at his shoulder, came down towards his left hip.
"It can also be reversed, of course." The blade crossed back up to his right shoulder.
"Practice it." Olvann paid close attention to his instructor's litany, his eyes never leaving the master's motion of swords and his ears always attuned to the wise words of the sword master.
Anxiously readying himself to practice, Olvann stepped in front of Zackner so that the he might correct him in form. Firstly, the man took his long sword for a slow run of the motion, sweeping the sword up towards the left and bringing it in a descending motion towards the bottom right. Olvann brought his leftward palm through the series of repeated motions as he tried to train his long sword arm to the best of his capabilities. Following the repetition of the long sword, Olvann’s right hand ran through a similar motion, first going slow as he ran his sword from up to down and across.
Zackner smiled approvingly. Olvann was a very good student, he learnt quickly. He reminded Zackner a lot of himself.
"Yep, that's it. Try a few more swipes, and speed them up, then we'll move on.”Time wore on and after watching the dark haired man practice a bit, Zackner decided it was time to teach Olvann a new maneuver. All the maneuvers his pupil was going to learn were very simple, but extremely important.
"Ok, two more that are so simple that they can be learnt together. The horizontal slash," Zackner cut a line across an invisible midsection,
"and the vertical slash." His sword went up and down.
"If you get those three down, you have completed the basic slashes, and we can move onto thrusting, and then more difficult maneuvers."
“Horizontal and Vertical slash…” Olvann’s head bobbed instinctively as he tried to register Zackner’s instructions. Olvann hurriedly stepped backwards and watched the movement of his blades. Bringing his leftward arm out first, he ran it across until he reached his right, and later did the same with the corresponding sword. He did this numerous times until he became confident that he was executing the maneuvers correctly. Olvann then began the vertical slashes. First bringing his short sword overhead, bringing it swiping downwards several times. He then followed with the long sword, however this time, he moved a little bit quicker, in order to get a better feel of the motion. As usual, Olvann focused entirely upon the moves at hand, following up with a small combination of vertical slashes and with his other sword to a horizontal slash. Following the conclusion of the practice maneuvers, Olvann glanced to Zackner out of the corner of his eye before he began exchanging vertical/horizontal slashes against a brutal imaginary opponent.
“Good." Zackner said flatly.
"The more you practice, the more your muscles will attune themselves to the movements, and the faster you'll be able to move those swords. Now, let’s move onto thrusting. It's pretty self-explanatory. You thrust." Zackner preformed a stab with his weapon as he talked,
"With the tip of your sword. It's generally a finishing move, as it can be difficult to free a sword after a stab. It is not a good idea to perform if there are other enemies around. You might get your sword stuck, and be left with only one." He adjusted his body to display how vulnerable he was.
"Now, there is a right way to do this. First, it's a bad idea to thrust directly in front of your shoulder, because if it doesn't penetrate because you hit a shield or something, you have the risk of severely injuring your shoulder. It's better to aim so that it's not such a straight-on hit. Also, don't completely straighten your elbow, because that can lead to injury as well. Keep your wrist straight, if you hit with a bent wrist, you risk bending it too far forwards or backwards and hurting yourself.”
Stepping into a corresponding line with Zackner, Olvann lifted his left sword up as he tried to follow through with the master’s words. Angling the long sword from his shoulder, he focused as he thrusted his hand forward to gain a feel for the motion. He did his best to keep his wrist as straight as possible. Following a bit of practice with his left, Olvann brought up his right in a rather similar motion, sword angled and low. Olvann ran it forward with as straight a wrist as he could muster.
"Yes, that's it exactly. Now, remember, keep your elbow straight and make certain to cross slightly in front of your shoulder.” The teacher replied to the display and removed himself from the wall, approaching his student with a practiced gait.
"Alright, the last basic maneuver is to do with hilts. It's not a traditional move, but I think it's important so we're going to practice it.” Olvann nodded.
“First, start out with your swords straight," he made his swords horizontal, pointing directly in front of him, "like this, so you can practice flipping them around without cutting yourself." His wrists moved around, and the blades went up and then were horizontal with the points aimed at Zackner’s chest, one blade nestled in the space between his arms, the longer one slightly up. He looked up to insure his student was following.
"Because you fight with a long blade, you have to adjust the position slightly to avoid stabbing yourself, putting it above your chest. Make certain that you have ample room between the tip of the blade and your chest, to avoid impaling yourself. Because once you're in the right position, you're going to do this." Zackner pulled his arms in slightly, and thrust them out again. If there had been an enemy, the hilts of the weapons would have hit them.
"The reason I teach this maneuver, though it can be risky, is because if you need to knock somebody out in the middle of battle, this is a good way to do it. Of course, there are safer hilt maneuvers, like," He slammed a hilt downwards, blade vertical, as if beating his opponent on the head,
"but this one is effective and rather impressive too. It's good for special situations." Zackner didn't mention specifics, but the way the move was designed... if applied from the front, it could very effectively break a nose. Breaking someone’s nose put them in a lot of pain, which was useful for a distraction and then a killing blow.
"Go on, practice it.” He instructed. Nodding his head once, Olvann stepped in front of Zackner like usual, holding both swords horizontally and out before him as he had seen the master do. He repeatedly turned his wrists for practice sake before executing the maneuver. Flicking his wrists in an ascending motion, he rotated the blades around and completed the maneuver with little difficulty.
"Yes, that’s it." He confirmed,
"You know, you can also use a modified version of this to wound people behind you," the dark elf said suddenly, shaking his bangs out of his face.
"Instead of having the blades in your arms, have them on the outside. And don't rotate up; go down, so the blades are below your arms." He demonstrated with his tips below his arms, pointed behind him.
"Then, you stab to the back." He said, thrusting his arms backwards. He quickly pulled his blades back and walked away from the man, so that he had room to practice.
"That way you can hit someone who’s behind you.” The man nodded and began spinning wildly in circles. Olvann quickly fixed his hands upon the already turned down blades, and with a quick motion, he propelled his arms backwards as both swords transitioned into a back attack. He attempted the move several times, trying to allow his muscles some time to get used to such an offensive maneuver. When finally satisfied that he'd remember such an attack, he slipped on over towards Zackner.
“Excellent, your progressing well.” He said, his voice filled with approval.
“That’s enough for today, take a moment to stretch, and come back tomorrow early.” He stated flatly. Olvann nodded, retrieved his cloak and left with a bow.
Olvann entered the hall early as his teacher had instructed. As expected, he found the Vysstichi waiting. With a short bow he began to stretch and took up the two blades he had used the brightening prior. Zackner smiled and went straight into the class,
“Any fool can do two stabs at the same time. It takes skill and practice, lots of practice, to manage your swords independently of each other in opposing movements. We'll cover the basics of that in this class, and then you can move on to greater moves as you increase in skill." He held up the two wooden swords he’d used in the last class.
"Alright, for independent movements, start simple. Cross-slash down to your right hip with your right hand, and cut a horizontal line across your shoulders with your left hand." Zackner demonstrated, wooden weapons flying through the air.
"Tell me, what's the point of such a move?"
Olvann stopped and considered the question momentarily,
“Two blades, from two different directions are not only distracting but harder to stop.” He said pointedly. Zackner smiled,
impressive… he thought, a man who can fight and think.
“Correct! An opponent becomes distracted in an attempt to stop one blow, and cannot stop the other. However, you might get your arms all entangled, and the awkward directions might mean that neither blow is as effective because you must concentrate on both strikes." He stopped briefly and considered Olvann before smiling and continuing,
"Which is why," He stressed,
"You practice." And chuckled hoarsely. It was the first time he’d heard his teacher laugh. He was actually enjoying himself, something that neither student nor teacher had expected.
"So, you can practice that one a bit, as well as this one." Zackner dragged his left hand across the invisible opponent’s throat and stabbed into his midsection at the same time.
"The slash distracts from the stab." He said, pulling back.
"Remember, these moves that I'm teaching you right now are only if you're facing one person. If there is more than one opponent, you're lucky enough to be dealing with two swords for two people. But we'll save that for later. For now, practice!"
Olvann slowly lowered into his stance as he ran Zackner's graceful movements through his mind. He had led with a high slash and finished with a stabbing motion. If Olvann rationalized correctly, the first attack would most likely hit the opponent in the head or neck, and the stab would run them through the stomach or abdominal area. It was a very clever maneuver...The man tightened his grip around the wooden blades as he shot his leftward sword into the air and curved it into a slash across what would have been an enemy's neckline as his free blade succeeded the primary strike with a forward thrust. Following the movements, Olvann ran through the combination several times, getting a feel for the neckline cut as best as he could. It was most likely a very lethal attack if completed successfully, and being devotedly perfect in all aspect of his life, he tried to burn the movements into his muscular memory.
"Very good. Try this one on for size." Zackner continued, taking his left arm in to cut across the midsection, while simultaneously doing a stab at an angle up underneath his invisible opponents chin area. It wasn't quite a vertical stab, that would endanger his arm with his other slice, but it wasn't quite horizontal, either. It was a compromise between both. His teacher stopped, assuring himself the man was following,
“Do you understand?” He questioned. Olvann nodded and planted his right foot forward, leading with a horizontal slash across the air and followed up with his leftward hand noticeably elevated at an angle as he thrusted through the air. As usual, Olvann ran through the motions several times as he tried to retain this new move.
“Excellent, why don't you go ahead and practice those three a bit more, and then we'll call it a day?” Olvann moved around the gym for several minutes, practicing his newly acquired skills. He replaced the blades, bowed to Zackner and exited the gym.
*****
The following day, Olvann reappeared as he had the previous day, stopping in only shortly to speak to Markener, and followed the same routine of stretches. He bowed to Zackner, rearmed himself and awaited his lesson. The lessons continued for several weeks, Olvann practicing his newly acquired skills until honed to perfection and then completing the healing tasks given to him by the father and son. Zackner was very pleased with his progress. Nothing out of ordinary occurred until one morning after Olvann had completed his stretch routine and taken up position for another day of lessons. Zackner immediately launched an attack at him. His long right blade came down in a cross slash from above Olvann’s left shoulder down towards his right hip. His attention mostly caught by Zackner’s right blade, it was difficult to tell where Zackner’s left blade was, but it was probably somewhere near his stomach, waiting for an opening. Unlike normal practice blows, Zackner was not pulling these blows, they were as genuine as could be inflicted by wooden weapons. Reflexively spinning to confront his master, Olvann struggled to bring the tips of his blades into the air where he would most likely have little time to react. Keeping his short sword a hearts beat away, Olvann slapped his long sword into the air horizontally to deter the course of Zackner's leading cross slash. However, the true motive behind this basic parry was to allow himself enough time to dance backwards out of harm's way. Unfortunately, the man also realized that Zackner's sword could be coming in from any angle, therefore, with his free short sword Olvann prepared to descend it horizontally to deflect any possibly thrusts coming towards his midsection. He managed to block both blows, even hitting hard enough to knock Zackner back a bit. Nevertheless, the master attacked with another blow, two horizontal slashes inward to embrace the man’s head, with enough force to severely bruise him if not blocked. If they had been real blades, they would have decapitated him. Knowing that if he ducked, he was open to a kick to the face, Olvann swept his blades upwards so they lined up vertically on each side of his body in hopes of deflecting the horizontal attacks. While doing so, a revelation came to his mind. Perhaps his attempt to block Zackner's blades would distract the sword master...leaving him open... As Olvann ascended both swords in defense, he kicked his foot upwards in hopes of catching the sword master unaware. The swords collided, and seemed to be stuck for a moment. As this happened, Olvann kicked at his teacher, coming perilously close to his crotch. Surprised, Zackner retreated, his head falling forward to look at what was going on. Olvann charged forward daringly, lowering his head in correspondence with Zackner's body, trying for a countering head butt into the unaware sword master. His head slammed directly into Zackner's nose, with enough force to surprise the dark elf with the pain. He jumped back, removing his swords from the vicinity of the man’s head. He lifted one hand to gently probe his nose, checking to see if it was broken. His right hand was touching his nose, sword still clasped in his palm. His left hand hung down at his side. Blood began to trickle from his nose, and he wiped it away with his sleeve. Olvann instinctively kept his blades at the ready.
Zackner smiled, but stopped himself quickly. He was impressed by the man’s attack, but noted that it was not time for appraisal. So, in response, he stopped touching his nose, ignoring the thin trail of blood that dripped its way out of his right nostril. He stood up, and launched another attack, both swords coming down in a quick and simultaneous cross-slash from Olvann’s left shoulder down to his right hip. Zackner’s face was devoid of all emotion. Gaiting backwards to try to avoid the leading strike, Olvann cast his right sword hand into the air to block Zackner's secondary strike with a crossing parry. They crashed down onto his raised sword, spinning him so that his left shoulder was facing Zackner. The man could not see Zackner to anticipate his next move, but there was definitely going to be one. His back was completely exposed. Olvann desperately tore his blades backwards and behind him so that each was parallel with his open back. Hoping to parry any horizontal slashes. The blades did smash down, and Olvann’s blind block kept himself from serious harm, but he was still shoved forward and barely kept his balance. He made a short dash forward, turned and found Zackner’s swords descending towards his face only to stop inches from smashing violently into skin and cartilage.
“Enough!” Zackner shouted breathlessly and hopped back.
"Congratulations. Your first level of training is over."
Olvann smiled, bowed, and exited the training hall, intent on completing any duties Markener had for him.
Linear Mode
